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Age of Heroes
Religion *Society *Culture Groups *Economics *Technology *Education - Trivium (grammar, logic, reasoning) *Warfare Time Frame It is well known that Rome dominated the Mediterranean region from around 200 B.C.E. until its conquest in 476. What is not so well known is that around the time the Empire stopped expanding (ca. 200), many of the regions bordering it entered what are known as heroic ages. The Irish Ulster cycle, centering around Conchobar, traditionally took place during the first century. At the same time, a wave of Germanic tribes invaded Europe from the east and in the process initiated their own heroic age - Beowulf, Hrolf Kraki, and Sigurd all had cycles focusing around them. By 410, Rome itself had been sacked. The next few decades saw the Roman Empire deteriorate until Rome itself was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 476. This led to a British heroic age, of which Arthur was the center. Whereas the Irish heroic age seems to have lasted roughly a generation, the Germanic went into the sixth century - we know that both Beowulf and Hrolf Kraki date to that period - and only came to a close with the development of stable kingships. The British age lasted into the seventh century, when their kingdoms’ boundaries and dynasties stabilized. Significant Traits The heroic age marked the end of an era that had been noteworthy for centuries of stable trade, government, roads, currency, and culture. It came with a few hundred years of famines, plagues, raiding, and conquests. At the center of these ages were simple chieftains, many of whom are still remembered. None of these individuals probably controlled any more than a few hundred square miles, but they did inspire their peers with their accomplishments while their professional historians, bards and skops told stories about them. Christianity had become the state religion during the Roman period, but would become entrenched during the Age of Heroes as it rapidly spread through the British Isles and among the Germanic peoples. By the late seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of Europe. Major Events In around 367, the Roman Empire started bringing Germanic tribes over to Britain to act as foederati, an auxiliary military force to combat piracy and raiding on the island. The agreement involved the Empire giving gathered food and supplies from the province to the them in exchange for their services. In 409 the last Roman general in Britain, Constantine, took the title of emperor and invaded the continent. As part of his promotion the Roman government there was overthrown and replaced by his own officials. When he died in 411, the government was again overthrown. This led to a fracturing of the former province. A reduction of food and supplies to foederati throughout the Empire, which led to the sacking of Rome in 410. This weakened the prestige of the Roman Empire forever and breaking the psychological hold of the empire over the Germanic tribes as an immortal and all-powerful artifice. In the middle of the fifth century, possibly 441, local efforts to maintain a supply of food and supplies to the foederati failed. This led to a Germanic revolt after which their clans established control over individual villages along the eastern coast and claimed the needed materials as a tribute. In 451, Attila lost the Battle of Chalons-sur-Marne, and he died two years later. Attila had united most of the Germanic tribes under his banner. His death dispersed them again and initiated an era known as the heroic age in which famous people like Hrolf Kraki, Beowulf, Arthur, Sigurd, and Theodoric would thrive. In 476 the city of Rome fell to the Ostrogoths. The Empire's western holdings were quickly taken up by various tribes. Several had already occupied Britain, while the Visigoths took Spain, the Ostrogoths settled in the rest of Italy, the Lombards and Franks were the main tribes in France, and so forth. In the late fifth century the first British kingdoms would emerge from what had been Roman Britain. These were localized responses to continued expansion by the Germanic tribes. The re-establishment of British kingdoms would give the British a decided advantage until the mid-sixth century, when the Germanic peoples would develop their own kingships. Their access to better farmland meant they could feed more warriors with the same amount of land and put larger armies on the field of any battle. The next few centuries would see the consolidation of Frankia, Spain, and Portugal though dozens of kingdoms continued to exist in Italy, Germany, and Britain until well after about 650, when the Age of Heroes ended. Religion There were four primary religions and several cult followings in post-Roman Britain - an underground Mother Earth religion, traditional Celtic, Christianity, the religion of the Germanic peoples, and following of Mithras and Belatacudros. Mother Earth We know very little about this religion, which was likely practiced well away from settlements. It seems to have been a natural development of the Great Goddess religion, taking into account a knowledge of the male element in reproduction and intolerance of both the new religion and the more traditional beliefs of the Celts. At the center of the religion was the replenishing quality of the planet, both in its flora and fauna. Worship groups appear to have been formed into covens of witches. At holidays, definitely the spring equinox but possibly during other times during the year, a simple ritual was performed. A male was ritually sacrificed and placed into a cauldron. He re-emerged as a young male. The ritual was deeply symbolic. The choice of male was because of the reproductive nature of the phallus as opposed to the consistent fertility of women. The young male represented the new year, spring, a time of new life. It was believed that our planet was like a person, growing old over the course of a year until it had to be sacrificed in order to make way for the new. We have no name to associate with the female element in these rituals, so that it is possible that there was none. The male seems to have varied by region - we know of Belatacudros and Cernunnos, the latter of which was associated with crows and ravens and shown with a stag’s horns. These were the updated versions of the Young and Dying God of the oldest agricultural civilizations. Over the course of the Middle Ages, practitioners of this religion would become known as witches, to be hunted down and murdered. Their chief holidays were the winter and summer solstice and the spring and autumn equinox, just like the people of the ice age. Celtic Religion The historical invasions were a part of Celtic mythology. It was believed that the giants of myth were descendants of an earlier race known as the Fomorians while the fairies represented another. The former group were active in this world and perceived as representations of the destructive force of nature - like the Jotuns of Norse mythology or the Titans for the Greeks. And like them, the Fomorians had probably been nature-worshipping people. The latter group were said to live in an Otherworld. The Fomorians combatted with the Celts' gods, the Tuatha de Danaan, so that the Irish were aware of them but did not have to worry about them in their daily lives. Fairies were more problematic, but they did not actively seek out humans. On their festival days they would emerge from their sidh to celebrate. If a person happened upon them, the fairies would invite them to their home, where there were boundless wonders and no one ever aged. Technology, beauty, and wealth were believed to be the treasures of the fairies. The catch was that when a mortal went with the fairies he could never return. A day there might be a century in the real world, so that anyone trying to return would turn to dust. Just because the gods were not active in mortals’ lives didn’t mean they weren’t aware, and didn’t need to be respected. We know of regular sacrifices to the gods via drowning, immolation, hanging, and beheading. We do not know the occasion, or even to which god(s) they were sacrificed too, though. We have no way of knowing if they sacrificed captured warriors during internecine conflicts, but they did impale the heads of Roman soldiers during the Boudiccan Revolt. Votive offerings of warrior armaments were also common. Also, the occasional articles of jewelry, bowls, torques, and coins have been found mainly in rivers, lakes, and bogs. It is feasible that water gods may have been associated with warfare, but this would not explain the other objects. The simple fact that objects can disappear and therefore provide the illusion of having been taken might have been the Celts’ reason to use water for sacrifices. Bodies of water might have been used for all gods. There was one aspect of everyday life that did revolve around the supernatural, and that was Celtic kingship. In a continuation of pre-Celtic thinking, the land was considered to be a living entity. When a king assumed the throne, part of the coronation ceremony involved his symbolic marriage to the land, in the form of a woman. For the Celts, the marriage meant the same sort of relationship to be found in most ancient cultures, that the land gave up its independence to her new lord. However, Celtic lands were accorded some power. Legend had it that if a king proved himself unworthy through cowardice, poor legal judgments, or by losing any portion of his body the land would grow barren. Symbolically, this meant that his wife would turn into an old hag. She would only regain her former beauty when the old king had been sacrificed and thrown into a bog and she was married to the man of her choice. Beliefs The Druids seem to have been a unique entity in Celtic affairs, credited as lawyers, teachers, and magicians. We know they were exempt from military and political responsibilities. They acted as priests during ceremonies and were believed to possess supernatural knowledge not unlike a shaman. Apart from this, we know very little about them apart from Roman and Christian propaganda. Roman records indicate there was a campaign to wipe them out during the Roman occupation, even though there is no suggestion that the druids were responsible for any revolt. This suggests there was something about them their inherent beliefs or actions that threatened rule. Apart from that, we know only that they were associated with the oak tree and mistletoe. The Celtic peoples held that the head was not only the center of a person's intelligence but also its emotions and soul. As such it was popular in art; stone heads dot the modern landscapes of Britain and Ireland. In warfare, the head held a deeply symbolic meaning. Worthy opponents were often beheaded after death, the skulls collected in trunks or stone trophy cases and shown to visitors. The dead among them would be put on stakes and used as protection of the camp or fortress. Cedar oil was used as a preservative. Instead it was believed that a soul would find a body most suited to it, so a good warrior would find his way to a warrior's family while a farmer would find his way back to the land. The belief in transmigration was so strong among the ancient Celts that they were occasionally known to makes bets and take loans that would be paid in the next life. Christianity The new faith came to Britain in the first century. As with the rest of the Roman Empire, believers spread their faith as fast as possible. Enjoying periods of alternative popularity and official , there are indications of Christians temples as well as the chi-rho symbols of people well before the fifth century. Public crosses, standing up to 25 feet high, were decorated with scenes from the Bible, making it possible to illustrate stories to an audience that didn’t need to read. The spread of Christianity continued well into the post-Roman period, with “saints” like David, Columba, Dubricius, and Samson coming into contact with and making the attempt to convert them. The Christianity of Britain and Ireland was organized differently than on the continent. In France, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere priests guided local flocks, bishops were assigned to metropolises, and the primary bishops were in Rome, Antioch, Constantinople, and the other major cities of the Mediterranean region. As the offices grew higher, the social and political influences grew as well. In this setting, abbots served merely as the keepers of ancient knowledge and as the leaders of monasteries. Abbots in Britain and Ireland possessed the political and social influence. Patrick, Gildas, Dubricius, Cadoc, and Illtud were some of the best educated and most sought after people of their generations. They taught generation after generation of princes and highly intelligent peasants. By contrast, bishops were in charge of administration. That Christianity could have developed so differently was a result of the political situation in Britain beginning in the fifth century. With the breakdown in Roman government beginning in around 410, the Germanic sea raiders that had preyed on Roman shipping for decades came to dominate the English Channel. This did not altogether stop trade and communications to and from the continent, but it did allow the Britons and with them the Irish to ignore whatever alterations were made to the Christian faith and to organize the religion in whatever manner they chose. The personal magnetism of leaders like Patrick and Cadoc largely led to the latter, while ignoring the synods of the fifth century on also allowed the Celts to retain some of their more ancient and less acceptable practices. *Abbot *Bishop *Celtic Christianity *Lilith *Monastery *Monk Germanic Religion *Baeldaeg *Donar *Eostre *Hrena *Saxnot *Tiw *Woden Culture Groups *Anglo-Saxon: The language spoken by the Germanic invaders of Britain. Tribes included the Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Frisians. *British: The native language of Wales and England, and the language of the conquered after the Germanic tribes had swept through. It was a P-Celtic language. *Irish: The native language of Ireland, it was a Q-Celtic language. *Latin: The language of the Romans, of culture, and of the Christian ecclesiastics. *Pictish: The native language of the highlands, the Picts spoke a Q-Celtic language. Celtic *Calan Gaeaf *Calan Mai *Gŵyl Awst *Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau Christianity *All Souls' Day *Candlemas *Christmas *Easter *Epiphany *Festival of Fire *May Day *Michaelmas *Midsummer Eve *Saints' Days *St. Crispin's Day *Saint John’s Day Germanic *Lammas *Litha *Ostara *Winter Nights *Yule Art *Bard *British Designs *Hanging Bowl *Manuscripts *Ornamental Techniques *Pictish Symbols *Skop In the post-Roman period, British art became a synthesis of old Celtic and Roman designs and symbols. The famous Celtic triquetra, the fascination with the head, the connection of water with holiness, and the Pictish symbols were variously joined with Christian icons, manuscripts, and Roman motifs to form a unique blend that can still be seen, most notably in surviving manuscripts. The era also generated an oral history steeped in history and culture in the bards of the Celts and the shops of the Germanic peoples. Using various pneumonic devices, audience techniques, rhyme schemes, and relying on their intensive training these oral "historians" were famed for their ability to quickly create moving and intricately rhymed poetry. The bard Aneirin is said to have composed all the many stanzas of the poem Y Gododdin before the morning after the battle of Catraeth. Culture Groups *Britons *Germanic Tribes *Irish *Picts Settlements *Aberffraw *Alo Cluathe *Arfderydd *Brefi *Caermalleator *Camboglanna *Candida Casa *Clonard *Clonmacnoise *Din Peledyr *Dol *Iona *Llan Gildas *Llancarfan *Llanilltud *Luguvalium *Moville *Nant Pawl *Pulag *Rayadr Kingdoms *Aeron *Airer Goide *Bernech *Calchvynedd *Cornouailles *Cornwall *Fib *Foirtrinn *Glywising *Gododdin *Guenodotia *Gueroc *Gwyngwn *Lleuddinyawn *Lleuenydd *Manaw *Môn *Nouoantae *Pecse *Reged *Selgouia *Strat Clut *Vannes LAKES RIVERS *Cluathe SEAS Culture In an era where places of learning were looted and no government was stable, culture suffered. Many of the past century's advances and intellectual accomplishments were forgotten. They weren't lost though. Manuscripts became spectacles; the Lindesfarne Gospels In monasteries throughout the continent the works of Aristotle, Boethius, Augustine, and Cicero survived. However, very few new works were made. Gildas is considered to be one of the greatest writers of the sixth century but his style was classical, looking backward, instead of British, looking forward. He was not alone. Everywhere any culture survived it did so in Latin. Technology Homes were made of wattle and daub and armor was primarily leather. Medicine went from being an art and a science taught in Roman schools to the use of a random group of potions and herbs learned from trial and error as well as superstition. During the Dark Ages, the pursuit of knowledge was considered witchcraft and could be punished by burning or drowning for their ties to the devil. This was especially true of women who, following the writings of Paul, were supposed to be supportive to men but to never work on anything too intellectual for fear it might make them sterile. They were especially not to have independent minds. Nor was there much chance of revitalizing culture or technology, or generating thinking. Trade remained at the local level, but with the constant worry of bandits, raiders, and pirates it slowed to a trickle. Cornwall alone, because of its tin deposits, was a regular stop during the period. CURRENCY A medley of bartering and money was in effect among the Celtic and Germanic peoples of the island. The exchange rate was based off the female slave/milking cow/silver equivalency. KINGSHIP Kingship varied by period as well as culture. Views on the nature of the office, its relationship with the land, and the supernatural were just as important as the personal aspects. *Arglwyd *Bard *cattle raids *Feasting *Gwledig *Hill-Fort *Hounds *King's Champion *King's Hall *Porter *Royal Hunting PEASANTS *Beekeeping *Blacksmith *Bragawt *Camisa *Sub-Roman Farming *Carpenter *Mead *Mouldboard Plow *Thatching *Wattle and daub SHIPS *Cwrwgl *Merchant Ship WARRIORS A warrior's personal accoutrements would vary based on personal wealth, gifts from the king, and items scavenged from the battlefield *Armor *comitat *helmet *Heroic Age *Scramasax *Shield *Spatha *Spear *teulu IRISH *Ardri *Ri Tuaithe GERMANIC *Karvi Education *Apprentice *Journeyman *Master *Trivium *Quadrivium *Philosophy *Theology Economics What follows is a very rough equivalence table, subject to changes locally, by year, and various conditions of the local property or economy. 1 oz Silver Female Slave Milch Cow Pence 1 oz Silver - 1 1 180 3 Year-Old Cow 1/2 1/2 1/2 90 Amphora 15 15 15 2700 Battle Axe 3 3 3 540 Best Horse 12 12 12 2160 Bushel Beer 12 12 12 2160 Bushel Cheese 5 5 5 900 Bushel Coal 15 15 15 2700 Bushel Flax 1/2 1/2 1/2 90 Bushel Grain 5 5 5 900 Bushel Mead 15 15 15 2700 Bushel Nuts 4 4 4 720 Bushel Tin 20 20 20 3600 Bushel Vegetables 4 4 4 720 Chain Mail 28 28 28 5040 Dagger 1 1/2 1 1/2 1 1/2 270 Dog 3 3 3 540 Female Slave 1 - 1 180 Fish 1/20 1/20 1/20 9 German Sword 20 20 20 3600 Goat 1/12 1/12 1/12 15 Hawk 12 12 12 2160 Horn 6 6 6 1080 Horse 3 3 3 540 In-Calf Cow 2/3 2/3 2/3 120 Jewelry 10 10 10 1800 Leather Cuirass 4 1/2 4 1/2 4 1/2 810 Metal Plates 11 11 11 1980 Metal Shield 6 6 6 1080 Milch Cow 1 1 - 180 Ox 1/6 1/6 1/6 30 Pig 3 3 3 540 Plough 6 6 6 2160 Pound Honey 1/12 1/12 1/12 15 Sheep 1/15 1/15 1/15 12 Shield with Leather 1 1/2 1 1/2 1 1/2 270 Short Sword 17 17 17 3060 Spear 1 1 1 180 Uncia 10 10 10 1800 Wooden Shield 1 1 1 180 Yearling 1/4 1/4 1/4 45